The Culture of Food

Editor´s note: We welcome Ericka Sanchez of NibblesandFeasts.com to the SpanglishBaby familia as our new The Culture of Food regular contributor. We are loving her recipes already and so honored to have her. Fruity and naturally sweetened drinks are far superior to any fruit concentrate or soda. Soda pop has been linked to obesity, which leads to other serious health problems. By making your own sodas, you can limit your intake of sugar and chemicals while dazzling your kids with aRead More&nbsp...

The heat is definitely on now that we’re smack in the middle of the summer months. What I crave during these days is a light salad, but am always looking for ways to get creative and try different fruits and veggies. I love jícama–a crunchy and sweet root veggie–and usually like to eat it just cut up in pieces with lots and lots of lime, salt and chile en polvo. In El Salvador it´s street vendor fare and servedRead More&nbsp...

Today our amiga Vianney of Sweet Life Bake shares a recipe she and her daughter came up with for Strawberry Empanadas! … Read the sweet introduction written by Bonnie’s daughter, Angelica and then onto the sweet recipe! Kids everywhere rejoice when the final countdown begins. Summer is finally here! Freedom from books, flash cards, reviewing math, (the worst subject) and history lessons. For an 11 year old nothing beats playing video games, movies at the drive-in and staying up late,Read More&nbsp...

I’m so not a morning person, nor do I like to eat breakfast, but once in a while, especially on a lazy Sunday mid-morning, I crave huevos rancheros. I made them this past weekend and my niños (and husband) devoured them! What’s your favorite desayuno?&nbsp...

Have you ever had an anticucho? Some like to describe it as a Peruvian shish kebab, but I’m not sure that’s an accurate description. Save for the bamboo skewers, there’s really no other similarities. For starters, anticuchos are traditionally made with beef heart (but you can also make them with other cuts such as beef, chicken breast and fish). The only thing threaded onto the skewer are the pieces of beef heart, no veggies or fruits. Just the beef. AlthoughRead More&nbsp...

Having a toddler doesn’t mean struggling at the dinner table every evening. I consider my two-year-old son Joaquin a pretty diverse eater. I know it sounds silly but we started his good eating habits at five months. His first solid food after cereal was avocado then frijoles then carrots…so on and so forth. A new food every week and it’s been working for us since. Don’t get me wrong, we still struggle with weird textures like broccoli florets or evenRead More&nbsp...

The inspiration for this recipe was my mother and my daughter. I thought that since Mother’s Day is around the corner I should start thinking about our present. And what better idea than to do something with our kids. I truly believe there is no better gift than an unforgettable moment with my family. Rarely we mothers find the time to play with our children. The daily activities are so hectic that we find it a challenge to devote qualityRead More&nbsp...

El Salvador, where I grew up, is a very Catholic country where all religious traditions are observed as part of the culture. One of those is Cuaresma, or Lent. We didn’t really have the tradition of giving something up during the 40 days of Lent, other than meat on Fridays. Those days, I knew some form of fish and veggies would be served at my house. Growing up I was never a fan of fish or seafood, so I wouldRead More&nbsp...